Knight toon shows Trump’s head as White House wrecking ball

President Trump made the news again this week when he decided to demolish the East Wing of the White House. Construction of the White House itself began in 1791 and President John Adams* moved in eight years later. The wing was not part of the original White House building but was added in 1902. Then in 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt* increased its size and added a second level. Underneath it is a presidential bunker and emergency operations centre control room.

The East Wing has been used as an entrance for touring visitors, offices for the First Lady, and the Jackie Kennedy Rose Garden sits outside its East colonnade*. It also contained the White House family movie theatre. Past presidents have made various additions to the White House across its history, from FDR’s indoor pool to Barack Obama’s basketball court, which modified the existing tennis court so it could be used for both sports.

But Donald Trump has always wanted to build a Grand Ballroom on the White House grounds. He is a property developer, after all, and his vision was for a huge 90,000m sq gilt* building which will be bigger than the White House itself. The plans look a little bit like his Florida Mar-a-Lago private resort and will be paid for by donations from corporate America and Donald Trump himself. Demolition started suddenly, with bulldozers and excavators moving in and within a few days the historic building was reduced to a pile of rubble.

There are so many metaphors* that come to mind to describe President Trump’s demolition of a part of Washington’s architectural history. Trump is well known for wanting to “drain the swamp” in Washington. By that he means he wants to bring about huge change, turn the bureaucracy* of the nation’s capital upside down, throw out the “woke” mindset and rebuild America in his image.

He is also no traditionalist when it comes to institutions both in America and overseas. Relationships with allies* and neighbours like Canada, Venezuela and Mexico have undergone major “renovation”. As has America’s role with NATO. So a big golden ballroom doesn’t come as a surprise while Mr Trump is in the Oval Office. And it’s no surprise that I decided to draw a cartoon on the subject.

My aim in the cartoon would be to compare the renovation of the East Wing to the President’s ambitions to remodel the government and bureaucratic institutions in America. I started with sketching the beautiful neoclassical* piece of Palladian* architecture which is the White House. I have drawn it numerous times as well as having visited it on many occasions. I thought I would contrast the elegant white building with a big orange piece of demolition machinery, belching diesel smoke as it lumbered towards the East Wing to do its work. I was going to have President Trump at the controls of the machine, when I suddenly thought that it would be much funnier if his head was the actual wrecking ball.

Once I had drawn the scene, I thought the cartoon was finished, with no words required. But I decided to add in a caption, with the President ruminating* about his next demolition job after the East Wing. He wouldn’t mind taking an excavator to the United Nations and NATO*. Then there is the talk that he might want to stay in the presidency for a third term. You can only serve two terms as president, so he would need to demolish the US Constitution’s 22nd Amendment that clearly states you can’t have a third term. No worries – that is easily renovated!

POLL

GLOSSARY

• John Adams: a Founding Father and the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801
• Franklin D. Roosevelt: known as FDR, he was the 32nd president from 1933 until his death in 1945, making him the longest serving US president and the only one to have served more than two terms due to World War II
• Barack Obama: 44th president of the US and the first African-American president, Obama served two terms from 2009 to 2017
• gilt: a thin layer of gold or something that resembles gold covering something
• metaphor: an imaginative way of describing something by referring to something else that is the same in a particular way
• bureaucracy: an administrative system operated by a large number of officials, including those in government departments
• allies: countries that have agreed to help and support each other, especially in case of a war
• neoclassical: relating to a style of art or architecture like the ones found in Ancient Greece or Rome
• Palladian: having the neoclassical style of architecture created by 16th-century Italian architect Andrea Palladio
• ruminating: thinking carefully and for a long period about something
• NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, the international military organisation consisting of the US, Canada, and many European countries

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QUICK QUIZ

1. Based on the information Mark provides, in what year was the White House completed?
2. When was the East Wing added?
3. What was Mark’s stated aim with this cartoon?
4. What does Mark understand Trump’s desire to “drain the swamp” to mean?
5. What does the US Constitution’s 22nd Amendment clearly state?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. What happens next?
Imagine this cartoon is part of a story that is made up of three cartoons. The three cartoons tell a complete story, and Mark’s cartoon is the start of the story. Think about what the story could be and draw the next two cartoons that tell the story.

Time: allow 30 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Visual Arts, Visual Communication Design, Critical and Creative Thinking

2. Extension
Being able to draw is only one of the skills needed to be a great cartoonist. Write a list of all of the other skills that you think cartoonists like Mark need to do their job.

Next to each skill, write a sentence that explains why that skill is important or helps them to do a great job.

Time: allow at least 20 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Personal and Social Capability, Media Arts, Visual Communication Design

VCOP ACTIVITY
Describe it
Look at the cartoon and make a list of five nouns that you see. Then describe those five nouns with five adjectives. Now add a preposition to those five nouns and adjectives.

Finally, choose your favourite bundle and put all the words together to make one descriptive sentence.

(For lower reading level articles, remove “add a preposition”)